The Gold Sarcophagus
by the bird of the chapel
Summary: Day 1/2: April Fools/Egao: Shingo has a different definition of April Fools, which is still pretty unclear, actually. But it works out fine for everyone in the end. Roughly 30 stories about Arc V characters for 30 themes. Based on the Arc V 30 Day Challenge in Tumblr. [ANN: Day 6, 9, and 11 onward are all late :C.]
1. April Fools, Egao

This fanfic will be using one of the few Romaji spellings for Yuto, Yugo, and (eventually) Yuri. Take note that they are still pronounced that way. Ute is still Yuto, Hyugo is still Yugo. Although they can still be spelled as Yuto and Yugo in Romaji, I choose to stick to what the anime or the Japanese sources say for preference. It also helps distinguish all the Yu's. You'll get used to it eventually.

.

A bizarre weather that sent Miami City to a standstill left the newly-formed Lancers to retreat in a warehouse after their first training session today. Reiji had extended his hospitality: free food, electricity, and a nice, warm shower in his mansion, but Shingo was the one to answer the call and the one to reject the offer.

"No, I've got a better idea," said Shingo with a grin. "It's perfect timing."

There was a momentary pause on the other end of the line, where Akaba Reiji must have raised a delicate brow.

"Very well. Inform the others that training will resume tomorrow."

Tired, cold, and hungry, the group was silently conducting their own businesses, trying to dry themselves the best they could and making sure that their cards and disks were not damaged by the water (they were relatively water-proof, so it was more of out of instinct.)

"Yes!" exclaimed Shingo when no light came on when he flipped the switch.

"No power?" came Yuya's voice from somewhere across Shingo. It was almost pitch black inside, with only the faint moonlight through the window turning them to identifiable forms. "Geez. Couldn't have Reiji picked us up? I could see lights from the LDS tower while we were running. We're all going to get sick tonight."

"Stop your whining, Sakaki Yuya. In a real battlefield, we won't have the leisure of calling our parents to pick us up," said Shingo.

Yuya made a strangling noise between protest and surprise, but he conceded. "…that's true."

"Kurosaki, what are you doing?" asked Gongenzaka upon seeing Shun search half-blindly through the crates.

"Trying to find something we can use to keep us warm and dry," said Shun. "But these crates are empty."

"Empty crates?" said Yuya. "What are they even doing here?"

"They're furniture," said Shingo smugly. "It creates an ambiance of old-fashioned – "

Gongenzaka's roar exploded, drowning out the heavy rain and thunder outside. The clattering of pieces of wood followed, accompanied by Yuya's, Shingo's, and, faintly, Selena's, screams.

"MY FURNITURE!"

"Now we have wood," said Gongenzaka as he picked the pieces of Shingo's 'furniture.' "How do we start a fire?"

"Put them around here," said Shun, kneeling at the center of the warehouse. He scanned the faces in the room and stopped at Yuya's. Before he was able to say anything, Tsukikage appeared out of thin air with fist-sized rocks.

"Here."

"Thanks." With Tsukikage's and Gongenzaka's help, Shun was able to arrange a fire ring. He pulled something out of his coat. By the clicking sound, it seemed to be a lighter. After a few tries, a dot of flame appeared, lightning the wood up. A blaze emerged.

"Wow, awesome!" said Yuya, bounding by the fireplace. "Now we can dry our clothes!" He started to pull his shirt off until he noticed the presence of Selena beside him. To his horror, she was following his suit.

"WAIT, SELENA."

"What?" she asked. Thankfully, she stopped before she could take anything off.

Yuya scratched his head nervously. "Er – Maybe we should just stay close to the fire with our clothes on."

Selena frowned. "Why?"

Yuya must have desperately tried to come up with an answer from a hundred of possibilities, but Shun came in to save him. With his trench coat at hand, Shun came over and raised it around Selena like a curtain. "I won't look," he promised, his eyes closed.

Selena gaped at Shun. "What the hell is going on?" Selena peeked past the trench coat and saw Gongenzaka and Shingo already stripped down to their underwear. For some reason, Yuya leaped in her sight and started waving his arms as if to shield them from her eyes. "Why is everyone in this dimension against me taking off my clothes?"

"Some of these people can't be trusted," answered Shun simply.

"HEY!" protested Shingo. "I'll have you know that I am the best gentleman out of everyone here."

"I…see," said Selena. "Well, whatever."

After a few minutes, the group was gathered around the campfire naked. Shun left his trench coat to Selena, who used it as a blanket in front of her body (she insisted for him to take it, but Shun's stubbornness was admirable.) Yuya noticed that Tsukikage was missing and started calling for him, until Gongenzaka told him to stop. Where he disappeared to, no one knows.

They were cold, hungry, and tired. No one spoke a word, focusing on saving their energy for themselves. Selena looked uncomfortable having Shun's trench coat help her keep warm. Gongenzaka looked completely unfazed. Shun had his eyes closed and seemed to be trying to sleep already. Yuya was clearly mourning over the lack of food.

"I have a confession to make," said Shingo with a cool, confident smile. "Akaba Reiji offered to pick us up but I turned him down."

"WHAT?" exclaimed Yuya.

"Man, you really are noisy," said Shingo scathingly before picking up his handsome smile again. "I thought I would do everyone a favor. Have you all forgotten what day it is?"

"Is it your birthday?" asked Yuya.

"No," said Shingo, still smiling.

"Hmm," said Gongenzaka. "The date today would be…"

"April 1st," said Shun, his eyes still closed. "Knowing him, he's talking about April Fools."

"Knowing me?"

Yuya chuckled. "Ahh. That's why! I completely forgot!" He grinned. "Remember last year, Gongenzaka?"

"Hmph. I, the man called Gongenzaka, still do not approve of your antics every April 1st, Yuya."

"What's April Fools?" asked Selena.

"It's a day when you pull pranks on people," answered Yuya. "You make huge announcements to mislead people and shock them, then say, 'April Fools!'"

Shingo chuckled. "No, you're wrong, Yuya." Shingo stood up. "It's an occasion where you spend time with people and create fun and new memories!"

"What?"

"Love, joy, beginnings, friendship, and entertainment. April is the month when Sakura trees blossom with their evanescent beauty. People from all over the world gather to witness the eternal beauty captured within the moment of spring. Ah, it is such the perfect time to have a duel under the shower of pink petals."

"That's true," said Gongenzaka. "There are sensations not even Solid Vision can recreate."

"But what does that have anything to do with April Fools?" asked Yuya.

"Would you stop all this nonsensical chatter?" snarled Shun before Shingo could say anything. "If you've forgotten, we're in the middle of a war! You might have the skills necessary to fight Academia, but if you don't have the right discipline and attitude, then you will be crushed before you could even raise your duel disk!"

Shun's words were enough to make the others go silent, but not Shingo. He placed a hand on his waist and looked at Shun seriously. For Shingo, it was impressive of how regal he looked considering he was naked.

"It really is a good thing that I planned for this occasion," said Shingo. "So that we can fix this attitude of yours before it's too late."

Shun opened his eyes and sent a glare at Shingo with cold anger enough to make him falter. "What did you say?"

Yuya looked like he was about to intervene but Shingo would not let the likes of Shun scare him. He swallowed and continued bravely. He had to admit, he was a hell lot of nervous. He couldn't look at Shun's eyes. Shun had a bird motif going on but he was looking more like a lion that could eat Shingo whole.

"No one's saying it, so I guess I have to," he muttered. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and decided to spit it out of his big mouth. "Look, Kurosaki, no one wants to end up like you."

"Sawatari!" berated Yuya.

"Sawatari, you're going too far!" said Gongenzaka.

Shingo avoided Shun's eyes and looked at Yuya and Gongenzaka's instead. "I'm telling the truth, all right? When do you think was the last time he smiled? Do you want to become someone who's always so sad, serious, and doesn't know how to laugh anymore? Not me!" He looked directly at Yuya. "Yuya, didn't you say you want to make people smile? To do that, you have to be smiling for yourself too. Us entertainers understand that for others to be truly be happy, then our smiles have to be genuine!"

"Yeah, but Kurosaki's in a different situation from us," said Yuya. "I agree with what you mean, but you shouldn't be so hard on Kurosaki. It's not fair."

"That's not what I'm trying to say!" said Shingo angrily. "I'm not so stupid as to treat this like a game all the time! I know the risks! That's why it's all the more important that in moments like this, we try to laugh and have fun. If we don't, we'll forget how to enjoy a good time and go crazy! Like him!"

Gongenzaka glared at him. "And now you're calling Kurosaki crazy – "

"But – damn it, why does everyone always have to be against me!"

"Stop." Kurosaki took a deep breath and sighed. "He's right."

Shingo finally turned to have a look on Kurosaki's expression. He was staring at the embers of the campfire, with the flames reflecting on his eyes as if they were glossing over his soul. At least he seemed to have gotten Shingo's point.

"All the fighting… Out there, all you can think of is to keep on moving forward. You're desperate and you'll do anything to win. To lose is to lose other people, people you love. I realized that while we were busy trying to find a ray of light somewhere, we've forgotten how to create a light of hope on our own."

"Creating a light of hope…" mumbled Yuya. His eyes widened and a smile popped from his face "We can always be the light for each other! Le's do it!" Yuya stood up with Shingo. "Sawatari, what did you have planned for April Fools? Let's have fun!"

Somewhat confused and surprised from Shun's accepted, Shingo seemed suddenly overwhelmed by Yuya's support. He stumbled for a moment but he finally got back into the game.

"It's nothing too grand, but is it quite special! You all would love it!"

Sawatari showed to the group a piece of paper that size of a world map. By one look on it, they already knew what it could be but they had a hard time believing it was for real until Sawatari did tell them that yes, it was a mat to have duels on.

"They're practically extinct because of duel disks. Not even your great grandparents would know what it looked like. Feast your eyes on this super, ultra rare relic of dueling history!"

"Two people have to play on that?" said Selena. "How are we supposed to play it since there are five of us?"

"Do you have more of it, Sawatari?" asked Yuya.

"They're really rare. I only have. We'll just have to take turns."

And so in turns they played. As they did, even more problems but interesting details popped out. The first battle went between Shingo and Shun. Having had training together, the duelists were already familiar with the deck of the others. But with some side decking, some cards were new, and being able to read the description on the card killed some of the surprise factor. Not that Shun or Shingo tried to read them.

"Oh! So that's what you're going to do," commented Selena from behind Shingo, who had already read the effect of his monster.

"What?" said Yuya from behind Shun. "Which card?"

"Stop that!" said Shingo, shooing Yuya away. "I was planning on explaining that later! You gave me away!"

"Oh, sorry," said Selena, putting a hand on her mouth.

Shingo barely won the match. His card-returning effects were a foil against Shun's swarming tactics, but Shun had already considered this and prepared to counter it. Shingo won through the luck of a draw on a pivotal turn.

The next one was a Yuya versus Selena. As soon as Yuya sat down, he already had something to say.

"EHH? Where do I put my Pendulum scales?"

"Just put it at the side like what I did," said Shingo. "Weren't you watching?"

"Oh. Hehe, well, without holograms, explanations kind of go past your head…"

Their match was more riddled with talks and mistakes. Yuya was taking long on managing the cards on the field. Selena was having a similar problem. Since they were taking long on their turns, they cut down a lot of their explanations. Shingo and the others kept asking each other what had happened, distracting Yuya and Selena even more.

In a draw Yuya was betting on, he got a particularly bad card that Shingo burst out, laughing.

Yuya lost against Selena in a mere six turns. Knowing that Yuya had played pretty badly, Selena gave him an advice and told him to picture the field like what she did. The sensation might be different, but the field was the same.

Encouraged by Selena's advice, Yuya challenged Gongenzaka next. The two had a fierce, 20-turn fight that ended in a draw. It was starting to get late, but after witnessing a fight like that, no one suggested to stop. Instead of having a new match though, they spent an hour discussing the match. Selena wanted to recreate the battle. She played as Yuya and Shun played as Gongenzaka. Through recreating the duel, they found a moment when Gongenzaka could have won. Gongenzaka admitted that he, a duelist of Steadfast Dueling, got overwhelmed by Yuya's relentless attacks and didn't see the path to victory.

Somehow, the discussion of the match led to a story when Shun lost a few friends because he kept destroying the Xyz monsters they worked hard on summoning.

"They sound like a bunch of sore losers," commented Selena. "They should accept their defeat graciously."

"Well…I can actually understand that somewhat," said Yuya. "Back then, I couldn't stand losing."

The longer the night went, the more hyper Yuya and Shingo became. The rain became heavier and Yuya and Shingo decided to drown it out by singing. Shingo took Shun's scarf and started pretending like he was Reiji. He put on his pants and rolled them past his ankles and halfway up his shins, which sent the others hollering with Shun even smiling.

"Egao ga soko ni aru kagiri! - Wanna keep on shinin'!"

"Kyukyoku no Pride kakete... WANNA BE THE PERFECT!"

_"DONNA TOKI MO SHINJITERU JIBUN NO ASHITA WO…."_

Since the heavy rain continued, it was hard to tell what time it was. The group eventually fell asleep.

The rain had stopped by the next morning. When none of his Lancers were answering and were late for the day's training, Reiji personally headed to the warehouse and found his chosen warrior sprawled on the floor without their clothes on.

"Did something happen?" Reiji asked Tsukikage. Tsukikage nodded but that wasn't all. "What is it?"

Tsukikage pulled down the mask on his face, surprising Reiji. The mysterious ninja was smiling.

"April Fools."


	2. Fireworks

The yowl from that day etched a password deep within his heart, hiding away memories, feelings, thoughts – another person, another soul that no longer belonged in this world. He – the other soul – didn't die. He disappeared, like an apparition he'd been dreaming as in his shoes all these years. Quietly, with the notice of no eye nor ear, he faded away as if incessant noise had drowned out his very existence.

Whenever Shun looked back in the days before their home was razed, he saw a dream he could never forget. But all strings that attached him to paradise had snapped. He did not lament. He did not mourn. He did not feel. The same dream could play as vividly as it wanted in his head, but no torment could ever touch him anymore. Something in Shun had changed, Ute had said.

But he did not. In his strongest point of introspection, Shun had concluded with his utmost clarity that he did not change. The thoughts that had ran in his head was evidence. "Finally, duels that are real." A game that was no longer a game. "Look at them fall so easily. I'm destroying them like kicking down an ant hill." It led to honor, to glory, to victory. "This is too easy." How the might have fallen.

He relished in some moments and saw the few good things he liked. He didn't know what to call himself then. A sick monster? A psychopath? An immature brat? Shun was an image of strength in the Resistance. It made him feel uneasy to know what the others were really looking at past the shell. More than that, his renewed awareness to his lack of humanity had made him feel alone, for not even his best friend saw just how ugly he was inside.

To do away from old habits, he made himself new and the change Ute had said became apparent. Down that road of fighting his inner demons, he dug deeper into the underworld, where the problems he feared were nothing but petty imps and underneath he continuously discovered worse terrors. He had stopped tracking this notion after a few months of fighting. The thought that had been consuming his world seemed suddenly so small and inconsequential, and he did not dust off the cover to the story of his missing other soul until three years later.

To commemorate their fallen comrades, a small ceremony was held. Each fallen member of the Resistance were to have a firework set out for them. They were going to real materials that they found in a warehouse. They pointed the fireworks toward the direction of the moon from the rooftop of their old school. After a name of their comrade was spoken, a firework was lit, shooting toward the moon where, in the sky, it exploded in bursts of beautiful sparks. In silence, they observed the fireworks go one by one, their thoughts hinging to every one last of their friends.

Shun was the only one not to cry. In each blast of those fireworks, he had a sudden flashback to the memories of his previous self. That time he beat the track and team record appeared from the peony. A palm-shell on his pet owl when he was eleven. The kamuro when Ruri graduated elementary. Falling leaves when he and his friends played in the arcades. As the fireworks went on, a rush of emotions surged like the tides within Shun. It enveloped his entire mind and body and he felt stronger as if he could take anything Academia threw toward his way, as if he could protect everyone around him and make this firework display the last.

The three years that past was over and Shun was whole again.


	3. Yuusome

"Um…let's see." Harry looked through the four different faces of Yuuri and his counterparts. "Ute.. Hyugo… Yuya?"

Ute nodded. "We know this situation is too much to handle right now, but give it some time, I'm sure you and your friends will manage."

"Wait," interrupted Hyugo. "You think they're overwhelmed? You're kidding! I still don't believe magic exists! Just – how? It doesn't explain anything!"

"With everything that's been going on, I'll believe anything," said Yuya tiredly. "I can't take it. Jumping through dimensions and running around in a world full of unexpected things. If I'd been told about it before, I would have thought it sounded fun but it isn't." He sighed.

Hyugo snorted, rolling his eyes. "There's a scientific explanation for multiverse. It's been a running theory since ancient times. Harry, you know that, right?"

"It could be a plot for a Muggle movie," said Harry. Yuuri laughed loudly.

"It's real!" seethed Hyugo. "It's more real than your magic! We're standing right – "

Harry raised his hands. He was vaguely making a joke since Harry wasn't really an expert on the subject. It might be real, it might be not, but what difference did it make? "I'll believe you if you believe in magic. Sounds fair?"

Ute grabbed Hyugo by the shoulder before he could say anything. Unfortunately, Hyugo did not react well on being touched, especially by Ute. Hyugo pulled his arm away. When Ute's grasp stayed, Hyugo pulled his fist and launched it at Ute's chin. Ute dodged, and with his hand still wrapped on Hyugo's arm, he pulled him in to introduce his stomach to his knee. Hyugo was smarter than that though and used his head.

Behind Harry, Ron was trying not to laugh. When Harry looked at Ron, Ron whispered, "That guy used his head. Literally."

"Hyugo – Ute, stop!" cried Yuya, trying to approach them without getting hit by stray swings. But Ute would move away and take the battle elsewhere to not get Yuya involved, while Hyugo just attacked anyone within his perimeter. When Yuya was about to jump right in-between the two of them (it almost worked last time), Yuuri rushed in and attacked both Ute and Hyugo.

Ute and Hyugo cut their fistfight short and avoided Yuuri's roundhouse kick. The two of them sent Yuuri even more hostile glares.

"What the hell?" shouted Hyugo.

Yuuri smiled, his hands in the air questioningly. "What? I thought we were fighting. Why did we stop?"

Ute made an annoyed sigh. "We were because we shouldn't be. Harry, Ron, Hermoine, there's actually something we needed to – "

Ute stopped. Yuya was flailing his arms, trying to escape the chokehold of his smiling captor: Yuuri.

"Yuuri!" snarled Ute.

Hyugo gritted his teeth, punching a fist into his other hand. "Geez, have we made up our mind yet whether we should beat him up or not?"

"No, Hyugo!" said Yuya. "Don't worry! Yuuri's just joking around. You too, Ute, he's not – " Yuya patted Yuuri's arm as less oxygen was getting through his throat. "Ummmmm."

"LET'S BEAT HIM UP!" roared Hyugo and charged in with Ute following.

"WAIT, YOU TWO – UTE, NOT YOU TOO."

Hermione sighed heavily. "Yuuri's going to be tricky so I think you two should take care of him first. I'll deal with Hyugo."

"Do we have to?" said Ron with a grin as he, Harry, and Hermione took out their wands. "I've never seen a Muggle brawl before. It might interest me to take Muggle Studies next time."


	4. Placeholder

And then Yuya told Shingo about Ute, how he'd been mistaken for him all this time, how the two of them dueled, and how he entrusted Yuya to give duels with smiles. He skipped the part when he saw Ute's memories. It slipped past his mind, but after a moment of consideration, he thought it might be better to keep it for himself; it wasn't Yuya's story to tell.

"Mm. How surprising. I didn't take Knight-kun to be an Entertainment Duelist," said Shingo thoughtfully.

"I don't think he is," said Yuya with a sheepish smile at Shingo's conclusion. "Entertainment Duelists aren't the only ones who can make people happy from fun duels ."

Shingo grinned, winking at Yuya. "But not just any duelists can define _entertainment_ like us. Especially _me_," he emphasized breathlessly, pushing his chest out and spreading his arm to the side. "Sawatari-san! Ever since my defeat against you, Sakaki Yuya, my dueling finesse has gone beyond the level of ordinary human beings. I am definitely a chosen one – it's just a matter of making the world know. And _you_ will be my first stepping stone toward that goal."

Shingo crossed his legs on Yuya's computer chair. "It must be fate. Your connection to Knight-kun proves it. If I find your Synchro and Fusion counterpart, I will defeat them for sure!"

"I'm looking forward to it!"

Shingo glared at him. "I'm serious."

"So am I!" said Yuya with a heartfelt laugh. "I saw my future in the duels that we've had. I feel like in the next time we duel, I will take another step closer to my father."

"Of course," said Shingo, basking in the compliment.

"Anyway," said Yuya, taking the chance to ask about something that caught his attention. "Why do you call Ute that? Knight-kun?"

"Hm? He appeared out of nowhere to save Hiragi Yuzu. After all, Hiragi had made me her opponent. Initially, he made a fool out of himself but he was pretty cool at the end, I guess." Shingo gritted his teeth. "But to my expense! I'll make sure he pays!"

"_Oh_," Yuya thought._ "I never did get a clear explanation from Yuzu on what happened there._" The incident was a particularly bitter one as it led to trouble not only for Yuya, but or You Show Duel School. Yuya never thought of going back to it to figuring out what really happened.

"The Internet called him the Dark Duelist too," said Shingo.

"What? The Internet?"

Shingo shrugged. "I only discovered it recently. Apparently, sightings of him weren't unusual. There was this girl who claimed she made him _bento _after hearing his stomach growl."

Yuya bounded off his bed to grab his duel disk. "What site was it?" he asked as he opened up a browser.

"Can't you look up your boyfriend at another time?" he remarked, annoyed, but typed down the address for Yuya anyway.

Browsing through the forums, Yuya discovered an array of stories about Ute. Knight-kun seemed exclusive to Shingo. Most people called him either as the Dark Duelist, the Masked Duelist, or as...

"Yami _Yuya_?" said Yuya, shocked. "How did they know? Reiji said he shut down the broadcast of the Battle Royale when the Fusion Dimension intervened! "

Shingo lightly hit him at the back of the head. "They're not talking about _that_. They thought you were Ute too, but _cooler_."

"Oh." Yuya calmed down and then grew angry. "HEY."

Shingo scrolled through the message boards and paused to a comparison picture of Yuya and Ute. A post quoting this caught their attention.

"_Is the picture on the left photoshopped? He looks like the kid whose father ran away from Strong Ishijima."_

Shingo continued to scroll down and the rest of the posts called him the same thing. At times, it transitioned to "Pendulum duelist" but most of them thought they were two different people. Yuya didn't know what to say. He wondered if Shingo kept on scrolling down just to find his name in the thread and close the tab as if they saw nothing else but that.

Finally, Shingo closed the entire browser. "Well, that's it!" said Shingo. They didn't find a single person who called him by Sakaki Yuya. "Satisfied?"

"_No_._"_ Yuya thought bitterly and said nothing. He had already accepted the bad publicity his father had. It wasn't permanent. Yuya would change what people thin someday. But it seemed much more worse to have a friend see it and not comment on it.

Yuya's silence was too telling. Shingo knew Yuya wanted him to say something.

"The son of a coward, huh? I called you that too, didn't I?"

"You did?" asked Yuya, unsure.

"Something along those lines," admitted Shingo.

"Sawatari, what would you do if you were in my shoes?"

Shingo looked at him curiously. "Me? Hm." He looked at the poster of Yuya's father on the wall. "I'm not a fan of Sakaki Yusho, but if I were his son, I would still be very proud," he said, smiling. "Maybe a bit angry, too. No, definitely angry. But I'll be angrier at those who call him a coward. Only I can call him a coward."

Shingo aimed with imaginary darts on his hand at the poster. "I'll do this too. But I'll probably never aim right."

Yuya followed Shingo with his eyes as he stood up and study the objects at his desk. "Honestly speaking, I wouldn't mind having a dad like him. Who knows. I might hate him completely instead."

"Why is that?"

Shingo looked at a picture of Yuya and his father. "He was very popular. Everyone must have liked him at one point."

Yuya scrunched his brows. "Why would that make you hate him?"

Shingo flipped the picture frame busily and didn't answer for a while. He set the frame down and grinned. "I didn't say I _would_. I said I might. On the other hand, we would have been a killer combo for the ladies, you know."

Shingo was trying to pull a joke, but Yuya knew there was something more hanging thickly in the air. Shingo noticed that Yuya wasn't buying his words. Shingo looked annoyed and Yuya was worried he had made him angry.

"Papa isn't that...blessed," said Shingo, pocketing his hands. He put his glare at Yuya's featureless wall. "Papa told me that I got everything he didn't have. Looks, skill, and even _money_. I've inherited everything because of him. So he gets mocked and laughed at a lot and he doesn't realize it. I don't want him to realize it. I want him to be always like who he is now."

He looked at Yuya.

"I got called names too. No one knows who Sawatari Shingo is. That's why..." Shingo clenched his fist. "I'll make them know just how great I am. I'll rise to the status of a legend and Papa and I will be respected. I'll make anyone who ever looked down on us regret what they've done."

Yuya had met Shingo's father once. It wasn't a very good encounter, unfortunately. But he was acting that way for him, wasn't he? There was a bond between them. A bond Yuya didn't know how deep, but a bond he could relate to.

"We have a lot of things in common," said Yuya, smiling to himself. "I didn't expect it. It's...nice."

"Nice?" asked Shingo.

"A surprise – in a good way," said Yuya.

"Yeah," agreed Shingo. "Someday, Yuya, we won't be placeholder names for our fathers. Someday, we'll make a name for ourselves. A name people will never forget."

"In a good way?"

"In a good way."


	5. Crossover

Author's Note: This is the Day 7 prompt. Day 6 will be coming.

–-

The Battle Royale ended up in a show thanks to a certain two Entertainment Duelist. Shingo wasn't very happy.

"What kind of duel was that?" demanded Shingo as he marched toward the laughing Sakaki Yuya and Dennis MacField while Black Garden disappeared on the background. "There's a time for everything, you two!"

"Sawatari is right," said Gongenzaka, flicking off a rose petal from his nose before it vanished with the field spell. "We are not preparing ourselves for ordinary duels. And this wasn't the first time you two acted as if we're in the Miami Championship again."

Shingo pointed at them accusingly. "Have you no shame? Trying to outshine me, the great Sawatari!" Shingo flicked his bangs and smugly smiled. "Of course, you two obviously failed."

Gongenzaka gaped at Shingo. "Wha – not you too!"

Dennis waved a hand. "_Sorry, sorry,_" said Dennis in thick foreign accent. "It won't happen again, Gon-chan."

"Gon-chan?!"

Yuya grinned, folding his arms behind his head. "Sorry, Gongenzaka. We got carried away. It's what happens when you put two Entertainment Duelists together in one team. Right, Dennis?"

"_Yes, of course_!"

"_Sakaki Yuya!_" growled Shingo. "How dare you exclude me, your rival!"

Yuya's grin vanished. "Wait – that's not what I meant! I mean, you're a great entertainer, Sawatari! Definitely! It's just that dueling with Dennis makes me think like I'm dueling with my father and..."

"Oh! Another Entertainment Duelist?" Dennis stepped forward and offered a hand to Shingo. "We're both LDS, Lancer, _and_ Entertainment Duelist. We need to become friends soon."

Shingo looked at Dennis' hand then at Dennis weirdly. Dennis had the habit of making people suspicious of him whenever he was being friendly. For Shingo, who was open to flattery, to feel just as much said a lot. Shingo was over it in a moment. He smirked and shook Dennis hand.

"Hmph. It's only _natural _that LDS will have more representatives, but we'll see about becoming friends. I don't just become friends with anyone. After all, with my father being the expecting new mayor, I have to choose carefully who I'm seen with."

"Oooh, I see. Hmm." Dennis tapped his chin. "But if we duel, we become friends, right?"

Shingo looked at him ridiculously. "Just by dueling? Is that kind of naïve idea what they teach abroad?"

"There is no hiding of our true selves in a duel, Shingo."

Shingo opened his mouth but Dennis continued.

"The deck is our soul. When two duelists fight, they exchange a bit of themselves to the other. That's why dueling creates friendship. It's _beautiful_."

"The soul...?" muttered Shingo thoughtfully.

The next day, the Lancers were drilled to learn about Field Spells. It was important for them to be able to maneuver through fields and use them to their advantage. Yuya was naturally the most knowledgeable about it while Shun came in second, who knew them from hands-on experience. What Yuya did not know of where fields that involved Trap Cards.

"There are Action Traps that are set faced up," instructed Shun to his fellow Lancers. "You'll be able to avoid them as long as you remain vigilant, but if you're careless, just entering its radius will activate its effect. Have an anti-Trap Card ready in your side deck. If we enter a dangerous field, it's necessary to edit your deck."

"Or we can have that card!" said Dennis. "I think it's Jinzo."

"Jinzo?" said everyone but Shun.

"It would have saved _us_ a lot of trouble," he muttered, his eyes growing dark for a second, something the other Lancers noted.

"What's Jinzo?" asked Selena. "I've been taught by the finest tutors in Academia and I've never heard of that card."

"Same here," said Shingo, arching an eyebrow at Dennis. "I'm studying in the main LDS branch. How come I wasn't taught of that monster?"

"Ah – really? Wow, that's really weird. Everyone in the Broadway School knows about it! It's a monster card that negates all Trap Cards in the field. Very powerful."

Shingo continued to look at him. "Why would a Broadway School teach about a Trap-Card-negating monster...?"

Dennis inwardly groaned but he maintained his playful facade. Talk about being in the lion's den. "Who knows?"

After a reflex exercise, the team headed to the LDS cafeteria, which had been isolated since the end of the Miami Championship. The disappearance of LDS students along with a few other participants of the championship had considerably decreased the credibility Leo Corporation. The previous attacks had not been forgotten either. The school's operations had to be suspended until further notice. Until then, the Lancers were free to use its facilities. Not that they would need an entire building for it.

While in the middle of eating their lunch, Shingo stood up and called their attention.

"Excuse me, my fellow chosen warriors. May I please have your attention for a second?" Shun continued eating without a care, but Shingo didn't notice. "Thank you. Now, as you all know, our dedicated veterans had just taught us the valuable lesson of caution and readiness in the battlefield. But there is one more thing I'd like to point out. While out there, we are not alone. We are together, fighting and protecting each other." Shingo brought a fist toward his chest. "And what binds our weak, vulnerable selves is trust! Like the links of a chain, we feel the slightest rattle or the slightest pull. If we don't move together, we risk breaking the entire team. That's why I, Neo New Sawatari, have come up with a _spectacular_ training exercise!"

Shingo suddenly jumped on top of the table and leaped like a spinning top into the air before dropping on one knee on the floor. No one was sure why he did that except "because he's Sawatari."

"Today, we will be getting to know each other's decks – no, souls – personally. Our newest Lancer, Dennis Macfield, has inspired me to come up with this new ritual of trust. I call it: Crossover Souls!"

No one was that interested with whatever Shingo had to say, but his idea reverberated well with everyone. They exchanged glances, already seeing the other persons in the room as a candidate who would be using their deck. But there was one person whose opinion Shingo wanted to hear the most. He looked at Shun, who was now paying attention.

"What do you think, Kurosaki? Is it a waste of time?"

"Normally, trust is something that's built as you and your comrades survive through multiple battlefields. But with our numbers, we don't have the leisure to that. Building trust this way isn't so bad." Kurosaki sounded like he wanted to add another comment, but he stopped. He crossed his arms. "It's a good idea."

"That's what I thought," said Shingo. He was sure Shun wanted to add something like 'considering it's you' but Shun was trying to fight less with his new comrades.

"_Interesting_!" exclaimed Dennis. "Then I shall borrow Yuya's deck!"

"Mine?" said Yuya excitedly. He stood up, his gaze flying to Shingo. "Then I'll have S – " At the corner of his eyes, Yuya saw Shun.

"_Kurosaki... Come to think of it, he's Ute's comrade. If Ute is inside of him, then he'd want a chance to fight with his friend again._"

"Kurosaki," called Yuya, fixing a solemn expression on his face. "Would you entrust me your monsters?"

An arm locked around Yuya's neck, cutting off his oxygen and ruining whatever serious appeal he was trying to make.

"You were about to say my name, traitor!" hissed Shingo.

"W...W...Sa – wa – " Yuya flailed his arms.

"No."

All heads turned to the faraway Selena, who sat alone in another table. "I will have Kurosaki's soul."

Even Shun was shocked.

"Ah," she chuckled. "How insensitive of me. Since it's come to this, it's only natural that we settle this through a duel!" Selena activated her duel disk and pointed dramatically at Yuya. "I challenge you for Kurosaki's soul!"

Yuya could see why Selena would want to play Shun's deck. Eve since she found out what the Fusion Dimension really did in the Xyz Dimension, she had been hounding down every information related to Xyz to uncover any other truth that had been kept from her. Yuya would have given it to Selena right away if she didn't challenge him like this.

"Uh... I should just go with Sawatari's after all!" said Yuya, laughing weakly.

Shingo squeezed his neck again. "_I see how it is_."

"Are you running away?" exclaimed Selena indignantly. "Where is your duelist pride?"

"No, I really want to play Sa..." Shingo wouldn't let him finish his sentence.

"Then, Selena." Gongenzaka was the next to make a declaration. "Let I, the man known as Gongenzaka, heir to the Gongenzaka Dojo, experience the battlefield with your burning soul. By learning the way of the sword, I may be able to take Steadfast Dueling to its next evolution!"

"The way of the sword?" asked Selena, frowning.

Gongenzaka nodded. "Or perhaps 'the claws' are better. In the past, I have fought a Synchro duelist who taught me the way of the sword. Now, I will learn from the claws of Fusion Summoning first-hand. In a way, I will once more request the instruction of an 'enemy' of mine." Gongenzaka's sandals clang against the tiles of the cafeteria as he approached Selena. Standing in front of Selena with his thick, giant bulk made Selena look like a pebble leaning sitting innocently next to a giant wall.

Selena was not intimidated by Gongenzaka's appearance. All she saw was the strong, indomitable will of a duelist.

"I see. The fire in your eyes is what I expect to see in all duelists who has an ounce of pride in them. I have deemed you worthy, Synchro Duelist." Selena pulled her deck from the duel disk and thus blessed Gongenzaka with her deck. In respond, Gongenzaka dropped on both his knees, the force causing the utensils and plates on the table to rattle. A beam of light shone down on Gongenzaka and a new, manly friendship was born.

"What the hell?" muttered Shingo, looking at where the light was coming from. He was still holding Yuya at a chokehold.

Shun handed his deck to Selena and the two didn't exchange any word to each other. Immediately after that, with Selena staring at the deck intensely, Shun went straight to Shingo.

"I've already played Gongenzaka's deck during April Fools but I lost to yours on the same day." Shun looked at a dark corner somewhere. When Shingo and Yuya looked, there was nothing there but tables and chairs. However... "This means I'll see _his_ deck at another time."

Tsukikage, their elusive ninja, stood behind a column, his arms crossed and his ears opened.

Shingo, who believed Shun had withheld from insulting him earlier, released Yuya and did not hesitate to give Shun his deck. No big, annoying talk either. Shingo gave him a two-finger salute.

"I trust you'll use that deck to its full potential, Kurosaki."

"Naturally."

Yuya looked at Shingo's deck in Shun's duel disk, teary-eyed. "But...then, Gongenzaka -"

"TSUKIKAGE!" roared Gongenzaka. "I know you're out there! If you wish to become a better protector, then my deck is yours to use!"

"Wait, I – "

Tsukikage appeared into thin air in front of Gongenzaka. From the way he readily accepted Gongenzaka's deck, it seemed like he already was planning to request for it.

"I accept this mission."

"But...But...Ah! Dennis –"

One evil grin from Shingo and of course, Yuya ended up with Tsukikage's deck.

The Lancers had the original owners of the deck to decide the opponent of the person who borrowed theirs. Gongenzaka (using Selena's deck) was against Shingo (using Dennis' deck); Shun (using Shingo's deck) against Selena (using Shun's deck); and Yuya (using Tsukikage's deck) against Tsukikage (using Gongenzaka's deck.) There was a debate with the match-up, but Shingo was obstinate about having his deck go against Yuya's. Meanwhile, Dennis lost the draw and would have to wait until the first round was over to have his go with Yuya's deck.

While everyone was getting ready, Dennis was subtly making sure his deck was clear of anything suspicious.

"_Polymerization, Polymerization...Ah, there you are. Can't have you sitting in there. Although Sawatari's not the sharpest tool in the box, you'll give me away completely_."

Dennis expertly slid the card off from his deck but the sly smile vanished from his face. Shingo took the card and then snapped it back inside the deck.

"Oh, what's this? Are you trying to hide an embarrassing card?" Shingo had just taken Dennis' deck. The deck with a Polymerization card on it.

"_He's fast! This sneaky little..._"

"_Oh my_, you got me!" said Dennis, waving the surprise off into a grin. The grin temporarily vanished when Shingo took the card on its edge to take a peek. Dennis clasped the deck together. "Ah, ah, no cheating! Or do you think you need a study session to play my deck, oh Mr. Entertainment Duelist?"

Shingo laughed. "What do you take me for, Macfield? I know a liar when I hear one. But that's fine." He shuffled the deck, making Dennis breathe a little easier. "I'll see the card you're trying to hide eventually."

As Shingo left off still laughing, Dennis imagined throwing a Yuuri at him.

The first match was between Yuya and Tsukikage. Given their personalities, it seemed like Tsukikage would be able to play Gongenzaka's deck well. But the lack of spell and trap cards caught Tsukikage off while Yuya knew Gongenzaka's deck from top to bottom. But whatever disadvantage Tsukikage had was lost once he was able to Synchro Summon. Tsukikage might not have had hundreds of duels against Gongenzaka's deck, but he also paid to every details during training. Yuya wasn't doing so badly either, except for the fact that he was trying to create entertainment with Tsukikage's deck. Halfway through, impressively, Yuya pulled it off, although Tsukikage wasn't very pleased about it. Yuya talked a lot for a ninja. Yuya won the battle.

The next was Gongenzaka versus Shingo. Dennis' eyes were bulging out of their sockets.

If Yuya talked a lot for a ninja, Shingo talked a lot. Period.

"It's my turn!" cried Shingo, holding the corners of the card on top of his deck. "With this next card, I will send you groveling at my feet! I draw!"

The worse part was Shingo kept making faces at the cards, making everyone else in the room just as interested. One card etched an appalled look on his face.

"What the...Why is this kind of card in this deck!"

"_Oh my God._"

"A level four monster, but only with 1200 Attack?"

Dennis laughed, winking. "Everything is an _illusion_, Shingo. _Illusion_." And then inside Dennis' head, _"Maybe I should just knock this guy out and say it's an accident."_

"The actors have come to the stage, and we have reached the climax!" declared Shingo. "I Fusion Summon! Oh wait, it's... XYZ CHANGE!"

Shun sighed heavily.

"Sawatari, it's Xyz Summon!" said Yuya.

"That's what I said!" shouted Shingo back. "With my Level 4 monsters, I Xyz Summon!"

Although it was a fierce battle at first, it became one-sided after a while and Gongenzaka lost.

"My apologies," said Gongenzaka to Selena, bowing. "I have failed."

"No," said Selena firmly. "I noticed. You were holding back. You didn't Fusion Summon when you could have."

"I, the man known as Gongenzaka, has no excuse."

"It is not an excuse!" Selena swiped the air with an arm. "You remained true to your Steadfast Dueling. That is why, as heir to your dojo, you did not fail, Noboru Gongenzaka!"

Gongenzaka looked up at Selena with the tears in his eyes glittering from the beam of light upon him. "Selena..."

Shingo quickly scanned the ceiling. "I'm not seeing anything!"

Yuya quirked an eyebrow at Shingo. "Sawatari, are you okay?"

The third was the long-awaited battle between Selena and Shun. Despite Selena's dedication, she appeared hesitant.

"Don't hold back," said Shun.

"But..." Selena looked at the Raidraptor cards on her hand. "You'll be fighting your comrades. Your allies!"

"...I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me; however, I am also prepared for it."

"Prepared for it?" said Selena. "You're expecting to fight your own comrades?"

"They're no longer my comrades if I'm fighting them. They're what you call traitors. Spies."

Selena stared at him, half-angry and half-shock. "But – you're calling your own cards..."

"I have to think this way to fight. If I hesitate, I die. The same goes for you, Selena."

Shun's warning did not help. Selena was already down to one card in her third turn with half her life points gone, and she looked like she was already giving up. Knowing Selena's pride, the others were worried how she would take the defeat looming over her. Shun wasn't known for showing any mercy either.

"Fight on, Selena!" cheered Yuya. "Just imagine you're Kurosaki! Imagine that you've been fighting with his monsters all this time to protect your comrades and save your homeland!"

Selena was visibly startled by the cheering. She had never been supported. And from Yuya of all people...

But he was right. What would Kurosaki do? The deck would respond to his desire. Maybe that's why the deck wanted her to lose... A Fusion-user...

"_No. Have faith. You're not like the people in Academia. Not anymore. From now on..." _Selena drew a card. _"From now on, you're free."_

After Yuya's encouragement, Selena slowly began a counterattack. Shun evenly fought against her strikes. He also had the advantage of knowing his deck and the strategies installed within its combos. But Selena did what no one had done. She had taken the deck as if it were her own. She did not simply imitate Shun playing the Raidraptor deck. Selena claimed the wings as her own and took flight to the heights of heavens.

"RAIDRAPTOR, REVOLUTION FALCON – REVOLUTION FORCE!"

With only 100 life points left and 10 cards left in her deck, Selena won.

Selena had never felt so exhausted in her life. She could crash on her knees right now. But instead, she found herself being surrounded by people. Yuya, Shun, Shingo, Gongenzaka, Dennis, and not too far away, Tsukikage. In her state of exhausted euphoria, she briefly wondered who these people were and why it kept her standing and pulling her lips until her cheeks hurt. Who were they to drive her to carelessly laugh and talk? She felt incredibly happy. How odd that, at the same time, she also wanted to cry.

And if she did, she wouldn't have minded. They were her friends now. And they, including her, will take Yuzu back one day. Then she would thank her and then she would show her just how far she had flown because Yuzu had opened her eyes.

Selena realized that the wings had been passed onto her for a long time. But now, she had learn how to fly with them and enjoy the wind and the sun that rejuvenated her with life.

The next day, Reiji was impressed by the Lancers' teamwork, although it seemed like Dennis was still having trouble to fit in.

"_Oops_, sorry! It was an accident!" said Dennis to the camera, an unconscious Shingo on his feet. "_My bad!"_


	6. Circus

A/N: This is the Day 8 Prompt. Day 6 is still delayed.

.

"Come on, Hyugo. Just this once." A woman in a white coat of a doctor bent over, trying to catch the attention of a scowling boy from the other side of his motorcycle. Noticing a black smudge on his nose, she reached out to wipe it but Hyugo hissed angrily, slapping her hand away.

"I'll go if Rin goes!" he replied, irritated.

"She'll be coming with us," said the woman.

"Oh, really? Why isn't she the one asking me then?"

"Honey," the woman pointed to her nose, "You've got something..."

"I'm working here, and no one cares!" Despite himself, Hyugo wiped his face with a clean towel anyway.

The woman glared. "Hyugo, mind your tongue. If you don't want to go –"

"I told you, I don't wanna!"

" — then don't!" She turned to her heels, walking away. "No one's forcing you!"

As she shut the door behind her, Hyugo heard a loud, audible sniff.

.

"Where's Rin?" asked Hyugo in a disinterested tone. His elbows were propped on his knees while his head lunged forward, busily interested with his phone.

"She's not coming."

"Go figure," he muttered, reading the last message Rin gave him.

_Have fun with your mother! o/ _

_Stop making her cry, jerkface_

"_She's your mother too,"_ thought Hyugo bitterly, giving up on calling Rin who wouldn't respond. _"Well, you're not the son who made her cry..."_

Hyugo took a deep breath and sighed as he tried to cool his head. It wasn't that he didn't want to have a night out with his mom, but he hated being forced and set-up like this. He didn't really have an interest to a circus either. He was sure that neither his mom did. How were they supposed to enjoy the night like this?

Hyugo reached for the caramel popcorn in his mother's hand, but his nails ended up scrapping its empty surface instead. Hyugo leaned over and saw that it was empty already. "Wha – Mom, you ate it all already!"

His mother looked down, her eyebrows rising. "I did? Oh. Get us a new one."

"Why me?" he whined. "You're the one who wolfed it down. I told you we should have eaten dinner first."

"We'd miss the show!"

"You were the one who was late!" said Hyugo. "After you repeatedly told me, '6PM sharp, Hyugo. No, 5:30. Be all cleaned up and ready. Don't drop by in any of your friend's place.'"

"I had work," she replied irritatedly. "_Real_ work to keep your school and nightly Riding Duels going."

Hyugo gaped at her. How did she know –

"Oh, _they_ didn't tell me," she said hotly, instantly knowing the look of shock in Hyugo's face. "All you men are the same. Keeping secrets from me."

"Then how – "

"Hyugo, do you _really_ think the director of a hospital would not know that her son became a patient in her own hospital from a riding accident?"

"I didn't get into an accident! Some asshole was beating up a duelist and –"

His mom threw her hand in the air. "So now you lied to my doctors."

"Hey, let me finish! You don't even know what happened!"

"_Ladies and gentlemen!_" the ringmaster cried over the microphone.

"We'll talk about this on another time," said his mother sternly.

"_A week ago, a blizzard has swallowed Neo Domino City whole and turned it into a frigid landscape!"_

Hyugo scowled. "I'll go buy popcorn."

His mom looked at him suspiciously. "Be sure you come back."

"Only because Rin will be mad at me if I don't."

"_...All this is a ploy of an evil goddess, but could it be that something in her heart of ice drove her to such length? Or is there nothing more behind her wicked smile, as she cast her curse on this fair city?"_

Hyugo returned with two boxes of popcorn and two mango shakes and arrived in a scene where Neo Domino City's duelists were speaking to the last of the three princesses.

"Is this a play or a circus?" muttered Hyugo as he handed his mom the popcorn.

"You bought two?" whispered his mother.

"I don't know how hungry you are," said Hyugo, munching on his popcorn. His mother looked over at his box and stole a piece into her mouth. She spat it out.

"You put salt _and _chocolate in it! Again!"

"Hey, whatever floats my boat, okay."

"Hyugo, that's disgusting!"

"So? Tastes great."

"You really want to end up in the ER again while shitting your pants?"

Hyugo blushed madly. "That was four years ago!"

His mom began laughing hysterically. "You've no idea how long it took to get the smell out of the room. It was like a skunk peed in it."

A person sitting right beside them couldn't help but snigger upon overhearing.

"MOM."

The show continued on like a cross between theater and acrobatics. Amidst the show was a motorcycle stunt across ice that impressed both Hyugo and his mom. Later, they came to the climax where the duelists finally faced the evil goddess but in a twist, they were defeated. The tent darkened and a spotlight flashed onto the green-goggled ringmaster.

"Our heroes have fallen before they could stop the evil goddess. Neo Domino City faces a future of eternal darkness where its people struggle on a daily basis just to survive. Is this where it ends? Is this the time to give up? Or..." The ringmaster stepped out of his spotlight. The spotlight moved to follow him, but he wasn't there.

"_Or will you, people of Neo Domino City, continue to believe in hope and carry on the wishes of your friends and loved ones?"_

Something was moving fast above the audience's head. The spotlight erratically tried to search for the ringmaster, but it couldn't find him.

"_Rise, you with the iron will to protect this city. Rise and bring forth your courage to never give up!"_

Hyugo stood up without hesitation. The spotlight beamed at him.

"_Boy, do you understand the risks of the battle you're about to step in?" _asked the disembodied voice of the ringmaster, his voice echoing from all directions.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm—"

"_You mean 'we,' boy. You are not alone."_

Another spotlight flashed beside Hyugo. Hyugo's eyes widened. His mom was standing, her duel disk already out.

"_When did she bring that?"_ thought Hyugo. Not only that, but she looked determined and ready.

"The people of Neo Domino City," declared his mom, "will never give up as long as we can stand up and fight!"

The spotlights vanished, returning the tent into a pitch-black darkness. The strange gust that had been spinning above the heads of the audience swiped both Hyugo and his mom from the stands. Hyugo expected to hear his mom scream, but he heard none, making him worried.

"Mom?" he shouted in the darness as they were swept across the air, not knowing what was holding them up. He was dropped on the ground gently. A hand reached for his shoulder.

"I'm right here, Hyugo,"

The lights came on, blinding the two of them. The faces of hundreds of people stared down on them from the stands but neither of them cared for what was around them. Two duelists, mother-and-son, prepare for a battle.

.

In mere four turns, the battle was arriving at its conclusion. They were up against the evil goddess herself but her attack was a whooping 3200. Hyugo's Clear Wing only had 2500.

"_But it does have an effect_," thought his mom. "With my Level 3 Tuner Twilight Rose Knight and Level 4 Rose, Warrior of Revenge.. Chilling flames engulf the entire world. Pitch-dark flower, set into bloom... Synchro Summon! Appear now, Black Rose Dragon!"

Rose petals rained over the ice field as a giant rose bug above the field unfolded into a majestic black dragon, whipping out its thorny tails. But the graceful rain of petals swirled into a violent storm, causing the audience to scream.

"Black Rose Dragon's effect! I destroy all cards on the field, including Black Rose Dragon!"

Hyugo's eyes widened. Could she be...

"I activate the effect of Clear Wing Synchro Dragon! When a Level 5 or higher monster's effect activates, I can negate its activation..." The storm of petals slowed down. Black Rose Dragon let out a wail. "...and destroy it!"

The dragon exploded, its beautiful petals disintegrating.

"When Clear Wing destroys a monster by this effect, it gains Attack equal to the destroyed monster's Attack for the rest of this turn."

The goddess raised her hand. "I activate: Call of the Haunted. Princess of summer, bring with you the life-nourishing sun and burn to crisp those who oppose me! Return to me, Marina, Princess of Sunflowers!"

"_A Plant-type Monster with 2800 Attack,_" thought Hyugo,_ "But since it was summoned with Call of the Haunted, it's in Attack Position. With Clear Wing's 4900 Attack, the goddess' life points will be zero –"_

"Weren't you paying attention earlier?" said the evil goddess, bored. "Even if you send my Life Points to zero, as long as I am alive, I cannot be killed. This is my sanctuary you are in. I am indestructible here."

"Tsk. Well, I don't see what the point of summoning that monster then! We'll destroy you here and now!"

"No, Hyugo," said his mother. "Marina has an effect. If you destroy the goddess, Marina can destroy a card on the field. She will most likely destroy Clear Wing, and Clear Wing's effect can only be used once per turn. You wouldn't be able to negate an effect again."

"So?" said Hyugo. "We'd still beat her. I wouldn't mind sacrificing Clear Wing to save the city." His mom remained silent. "Mom, don't let Black Rose Dragon's sacrifice come to a waste. End it now."

"No. I active my own Call of the Haunted: Come back, Black Rose Dragon! Then from my graveyard, I activate the effect of Glow-up Bulb. By discarding the card on top of my deck to the graveyard, I can special summon it in the field."

"A Level 1 Tuner?" said Hyugo.

"Clustering wishes will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon – take flight, Stardust Dragon!"

"_Stardust Dragon only has 2500 Attack... If only I could use it to destroy Marina, but her Attack is 300 points higher. We don't have a choice, don't we...?"_

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, attack the goddess!"

The crowd cheered aloud as Clear Wing blasted the goddess with a brilliant light. But at the moment, the goddess was killed, Marina's effect activates. As she thought, the goddess had chosen to target Clear Wing out of spite.

"Stardust Dragon!" cried Hyugo's mom. "Victim Sanctuary!"

"_Protect our son!"_

By sending itself to the graveyard, Stardust Dragon can negate the activation of a card that destroys a card on the field and also destroys that target in the process. Marina, like its master, was obliterated. Clear Wing stood alone in the field with Stardust's crystal particles protecting it. Hyugo's mom couldn't help but smile fro her son's awe.

"_And at the End Phase, Stardust special summons itself from the graveyard..."_

"No..." came Hyugo's shocked voice. "You little..."

Hyugo's mom gasped. On the opposite field was a Trap Card: Disappear. It banishes a monster in the opponent's graveyard. They could hear the evil goddess' laugh echoing. But none of the crowd cared. The spectacle and victory of their heroes have saved their city. No one gave a second glance to the unsung hero who supported them.

"_Ah! Wait!"_ Hyugo's mom quickly sent a card to the graveyard from her hand. Just a second later and she would have missed the activation.

She didn't bother announcing what she did. The Trap Card shattered, leaving Hyugo shocked. He looked around and a big smile appeared in his face.

Stardust Dragon was back.

.

"Ah, my lady!"

Hyugo and his mom turned around. Running toward the was none other than the ringmaster.

"I'd like to thank you for your participation. It was amazing! Have you two considered Action Dueling?"

"What?" repeated Hyugo.

"Well, it's..." Before the ringmaster could say anything, a clown pulled his arm urgently.

"Yusho, the media is here! Go get your face in the cameras!"

"Ah, I see, let me just explain – "

"Now!"

Hyugo and his mom waved at the ringmaster as he was pulled into a maelstrom of exiting crowd.

"I wonder what Action Duel is," said his mom as they left to have dinner.

"Probably something circus," said Hyugo. "I guess there are other types of dueling besides Riding Duel in other cities."

"I suppose."

"Anyway, Mom!" Hyugo pulled her aside and gave her a berating look. "That card earlier!"

She blinked. "Rose Archer?"

"_That _one. Why didn't you use it earlier? If you'd used it to negate Call of the Haunted, you wouldn't have had to summon Stardust."

She smiled sheepishly. "Give me a break, Hyugo. I haven't dueled in a long time."

Hyugo was about to retort but he stopped and grinned instead. He was in a particularly good mood. He folded his arms behind his head and walked ahead of her.

"Yeah, I can tell."

His mom pouted. "It was just one mistake."

Hyugo laughed. "Sure."

"What? Did I make another mistake?"

"Hehe."

"Hyugo!"

"Never mind. You were okay."

"_'Okay_'?!"

When Hyugo refused to tell her what her other mistake was, she turned to Rin, who told her that Clear Wing could have negated Marina's effect as well.

"But – it's a once per turn effect!"

"Clear Wing has _two_ once per turn effect, Auntie."

"Two?!"

The next day, Hyugo's mom challenged him to a duel.


	7. I'm Here

A/N: Day 6 and Day 9 have been skipped. Day 6 will be delayed for another week. Day 9, along with Day 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, will be coming soon. YEAAHHH.

They lost more of the few comrades they had and now, Ruri was gone.

Never once in his life had Shun felt so much anger tremble inside of him this way. He didn't even need to think of the anger. His body was automatically responding, shaking, blurring everything he saw. This was the first time Shun had this sensation, and yet, with certainty, he knew it was screaming for nothing but murder. He'd cut off the hands that took her and strangle the throat where the treacherous words escaped.

Shun couldn't take it. He picked up a piece of broken concrete and smashed it across the debris-filled road before him. The concrete shattered instantly with one stray piece having come close to piercing him in the eye. The danger encouraged him. He went to pick up another, smashed it, and immediately retrieved more to repeat the process. In each throw, the anger coiled toward toward his chest, tighter in each succession, until he couldn't keep the roar inside. Shun grabbed a fistful of a half-burned bush on the sidewalk and ripped it from its roots, screaming in frustration and stomping his feet. When he'd let it out, when he was panting and his hands were sore and red, the unreasonableness melted away, like rock that started to simply dissipate out of existence. He felt his head lighten, the fog slowly clearing up.

How laughable. Shun stopped his feet from pacing and inhaled the crisp, cold night air in excess. As his lucidness returned, a strange ebb of confusion followed. A slight frown decorated his face, trying to grasp what was wrong.

Ute.

Shun whirled around but found only two members of the Resistance on the outpost of their temporary base. "Ute?" he called but he was nowhere to be found.

Shun gave the lonesome park bench at a distance a long look before shooting to the guards, who'd notice his strange behaviour.

"Have you seen Ute?"

They looked at each other. "No."

"Was he here earlier?"

They exchanged another glance at each other and gave him the same response. It must have been a weird and stupid question; Shun didn't even know if Ute had been with him. He had assumed so. Ute was always there, especially when Shun was close to throwing a fit of rage. If he'd been there, Ute would have already knocked some sense into him before he'd gone on streak of cement and foliage destruction.

Shun didn't care what they think. Ute was missing.

"Where is he then?" he hissed.

"We don't know – "

Shun gritted his teeth. First Ruri, and now Ute?

"Tell Leader he's missing. I'll go look for him." Shun didn't wait for a respond. In a heartbeat, he was out running into the night alone.

Shun followed where his gut took him and eventually found Ute alongside of a ruined road. His back, head, and shoulders were hunched over that his form looked like the sad figure of a drooping tulip. It was not unusual to see Ute moping alone but it was always as painful to see him this way.

"Ute, let's go back."

Ute looked up, looked back down again, and shook his head mutely.

Shun stood in front of him, watching him mourn into thin air. "It's not safe here."

He didn't respond.

"Well," said Shun, crossing his arms and surveying the former battlefield. Its story included some upturned cars, craters on the road, tongues of fire, and so on. "You can take care of yourself, but we know how dishonourable the Fusionists are. We don't know what dirty trick they'd pull next."

Shun looked at Ute, but he still showed no sign of budging. He returned his crossed arms to his sides.

"Have you eaten?"

"I'm not hungry."

Shun sighed through his nostrils.

"Come on, Ute. You can mope in a place that's brighter and warmer. It doesn't have to be right next to a trash can."

"I'm sorry," said Ute, the volume of his voice so controlled that Shun knew it was his emotions that he was keeping in check.

"Sorry?"

"I'm...Everything. I'm acting like this when you're... I should be the one that's..."

"Don't bother finishing," said Shun crisply, crossing his arms back again. "I'm your friend too. I'm here for you. It doesn't _matter_ \- " he emphasized when Ute was about to open his mouth, "- who you think deserves the sympathy more. If I see my friend having a problem, I'll gladly abandon everything else to help him out."

Ute smiled strangely.

"What?" asked Shun.

"No... It's just that... You don't really have any friend besides me."

Shun rolled his eyes. "Come on."

Still, Ute didn't move. The somber look returned to his face.

"I can't go back," said Ute miserably. "Shun, they think I'm a traitor."

In a flash, anger came back in Shun's face. "_What_?"

"The others said they saw me with Ruri last – "

"And you were!" said Shun hotly.

"Our stories don't match up. They said they saw me and Ruri heading toward the school, but I only met up with Ruri after that."

"A traitor wouldn't be dumb enough to stay around. And you're _not_ a traitor. Remember what I told you when this war began? If something were to happen to me, you were the only person I can trust to protect Ruri. That hasn't changed."

"And I failed."

Shun's gaze fell on his shoes. "Maybe so... But there _is_ or was a traitor amongst us. A spy who was feeding our enemies information. This isn't a problem you alone can solve, and certainly not a problem you _can_ solve by sitting out here."

Ute, at last, nodded. Shun briefly smiled before he clenched a fist in determination.

"I don't put you at fault at all. Every pain and people we've lost is because of the Fusion Dimension. I'll make them pay. I'll tear them from limb to limb if it means getting the grin off their faces. There will be no mercy. Not to our enemies nor to our comrades turned traitors."

"You've changed, Shun."

"That's the second time you told me that."

Ute took out something from his pocket and handed it to Shun. "I went to the school to find out any clues and I found this."

Shun picked up the badge from his hand. "'LDS'? Do you know what that is?"

"No. But it might have something to do with whoever took Ruri."

"You don't think she was turned into..."

"No," said Ute with clear determination shining in his eyes. "Ruri would never lose."

Ute's faith surprised even Shun.

"You're right. Let's bring this up to Leader. If Ruri is still alive, then we have to get her back. Any second we lose and we lose the chance to save her."

But the following events were beyond their expectations. In a do-or-die mission that had gone wrong, Shun abandoned the Resistance and Ute was left alone in a crossroad. Whether to follow Shun and save Ruri or remain with their comrades to continue their battles.

"_Are your friends that more important to you? More important than our world in the brink of destruction?"_

No. Everyone... Everything meant to him a lot.

"_Have you, all this time, hated us, Ute?"_

No! Everyone was so kind. To finally have this many friends surrounding him... If only the circumstances were different. He...

"_Shun had left. But we're still here. _I'm_ here. Please, don't – "_

If they leave now, they lose their chance to travel to another dimension. Acadeima would definitely shut these teleporters down.

"_I can't believe you_."

On that day, Ute had ran away.


	8. Spring

In the line of work of a bodyguard – the Akaba Reiji's bodyguard no less – Nakajima's routine went from day to the following day, from night to the next. Yet, all in all, he gets more sleep than his employer. Nakajima wasn't Reiji's sitter, however. He didn't think he re-hired him for that anyway.

Besides Reiji and his night-shift crew, the populace of the household were asleep. Or so Nakajima thought.

Under the gaze of the moonlight beaming from the western windows, a long shadow crept up to him. He caught its elongated head touching the door he was about to reach for. At once, Nakajima pivoted, shooting his hand in the air like a tiger bounding to its prey. His fingers buried around a wrist, but before he could process its skinniness, bones he could feel and flesh that he surely have already bruised, he yanked it in into the moonlight. Only then, with barely any weight to drag in, that the oddity struck him, but the face of a child was already staring at him with wide-eyed confusion in return.

"Selena?"

The confusion turned to anger. She had a demand at the tip of her tongue, but Nakajima had already released her before she had gotten the chance. She settled at glaring at him and rubbing her wrist, though it did not really hurt as much as Nakajima thought.

It was Nakajima's turn to be angry.

"What are you doing out of your room?"

Nakajima never thought of Selena as the type to answer questions, but she stood and replied, "I've just left the training room. I'm headed there right now."

"Is that so?"

"I...I got a little lost."

Nakajima didn't believe her one bit, and Selena knew that. Selena would never admit anything of that sort. Unless it wasn't actually true.

"Let me accompany you to your room then."

Selena snorted. "Why? Are the corridors of the Akaba mansion dangerous?"

Nakajima smiled. "If you were scared of the dark. But you're too old for that. Good night, Selena."

"Wait!" said Selena as Nakajima turned his back on her. "You will take me to my room."

"I take orders from Akaba Reiji, not from you."

"Please."

"_She does want something."_ Nakajima sighed. He didn't want to have anything to do with any or the brats or Lancers Reiji kept accommodating in his house. He wasn't being paid for this.

"Very well," he said, hoping to sound like he was annoyed for being bothered but his tone came out as indifferent as he was expected to be. "But if there's something urgent that you need, please contact someone else next time. I'm not a servant."

"I understand."

They proceeded to walk with Nakajima leading. Selena wasted no time asking him what she wanted. Nakajima could feel her eyes looking at him intensely by the back of his head.

"Tell me about Akaba Reiji."

A flat no, unfortunately, wasn't going to end this conversation. Nakajima knew.

"Have you fallen for him?"

"Don't give me that bullshit." When Selena fell silent, Nakajima listened to clues to what she could be thinking. She didn't stay quiet for long, but she sounded edgy. "With who I am and what Academia has done, I've been treated kinder than I expected. At first, I thought it was because I looked like Yuzu. Not even Kurosaki would want to lay a hand on a person who looked just like his beloved sister. But there's something else. Since I've been in this mansion, he, Akaba Reiji, has been...too accepting."

They walked into a dark hallway with only the moon as light. Nakajima chose not to reply and Selena seemed content about his silence as she went on again.

"I know he expects something in return, and so do I. But it isn't just him. His little brother. And LDS' Directory, his mother."

Nakajima continued with his silence, but Selena wasn't as happy with his decision the second time.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"I'm not really sure what to say," answered Nakajima truthfully. "What you want to hear me say."

"Tell me! Tell me about Akaba Reiji! What is the reason behind his hospitality to me, his hated enemy?"

Nakajima stopped by Selena's room and adjusted his sunglasses. "I'm not Akaba Reiji."

"But you've been with him all this time! Surely, there's something that you..." Selena wavered when Nakajima raised an eyebrow.

"It seems you've misunderstood. I've only been in his service for less than a year."

"Less than a year?" she repeated in disbelief. Nakajima opened the door in her room, where light poured out. "That's impossible! You are the most man privy to everything Reiji knows and does outside of his family! How can he put so much trust in you?"

"I don't know how it goes in the Fusion Dimension, but money runs this particular world."

"Don't mock me! You know what I'm talking about!"

"Honestly, I don't," said Nakajima, his patience running out. What did he look like, Reiji's consultant? "Have you considered that there is no meaning behind it?"

"No meaning?"

"Yes. You're over-thinking it. Excuse me."

The following morning went on in Nakajima's usual routine. He was occupied enough to forget about last night's encounter until Selena came barging into the employee's house, seeming to know where Nakajima was. He was checking out upgrades for the cameras in the mansion in his tablet over lunch. Selena didn't care whether he was busy doing his work or eating his food.

"Three years ago - " Selena gasped for breaths, " - you became Akaba Reiji's personal bodyguard."

Nakajima set down the tablet, studying Selena's sweat-coated face.

"I know. But you were dismissed a week later. Why?"

"Where did you hear that?" Nakajima was legitimately curious, and slightly concerned. How was this girl snooping around for information from three years back? The employees in the Akaba household were professionals, not gossipy maids who were eager to blabber on trivial stories to excite their droll lives.

"Answer me!"

Nakajima pushed his sunglasses up out of habit. "I'm not obliged to answer you."

"I knew you'd say that." With a smug smile, Selena threw her left arm up. Latched on it is her Academia duel disk, activating to her command. "I should have settled this with you last night. Duel me! If I win, then you'll have no choice but to answer all my questions!"

Nakajima sighed. He was going to try to appeal to reason. Once.

"Why are you so insistent on knowing, Selena?"

"I won't bother explaining myself twice. Take up your duel disk and fight me!"

"That's impossible. I don't play your game." When he received no reaction, Nakajima elaborated; he imagined the thought of it had left Selena baffled. He took a sip of his late morning coffee. "I'm not a duelist."

.

"Selena? Why is that?"

"I don't know, sir," said Nakajima to his employer, sounding more exasperated than Reiji would ever be if he even tried. "I wasn't sure if I should report it to you or not."

Reiji laced his hands together, pressing his lip to his hands as per his habit when contemplating. "What did you tell her?"

"Nothing. I told her she should ask you directly. I suppose she hasn't done that."

"No. What is the progress on the transporters?"

Nakajima glanced at the report on his tablet. "Halfway there, but progress has been increasing everyday. It's only a matter of time."

"Good."

And that was it. For the past few weeks, they had done nothing but observe the progress of their teams, whether be it Reiji's team of scientists developing inter-dimensional transportation devices or his team of duelists who would accompany him to spread their cause in another dimension. Nakajima popped open the browser in his tablet where it opened to a tab to a list of cameras and their prices. He pressed onto another existing tab: a tourist page on the fully-blossomed _sakura_ in Akita prefecture.

"Sir, there doesn't seem to be any immediate matters to attend to," commented Nakajima.

Reiji swiveled around. "Hm? What is it?"

"It's just something I noticed, sir. I looked up your activities in the last three years when you re-hired me, and around this time, you depart to see the cherry blossoms. Has there been a change in schedule?"

Reiji was surprised. A rare sight that Nakajima was sure the same thing had passed his face just now. Reiji pulled the side of his fist to his mouth in deep thought.

"Sir?"

Reiji raised his head. "All matters are being handled without a problem, correct?"

"Currently, yes."

Reiji crossed his arms, his eyes looking intently at his knee. "I suppose I'll have time... No, it's about time I say goodbye," he mumbled. Reiji stood up and made his way toward the elevator. Nakajima followed. "Your observation has helped me again. Good work, Nakajima. I completely forgot about it."

"That's rare, sir. I heard you never miss an appointment. From what I've seen, that seems to be true until now."

"It's not a schedule," he replied impassively, lights of computers reflecting on Reiji's glasses as the elevator took them below. "It's just something I remember once in a while. Every year. It's about time I bury it into the past. Forever."

.

It was time for breakfast for the Akaba and their guest. It wasn't Nakajima's job, but if it were to save them all the inconvenience, walking from the dinning hall to the bedrooms wasn't a difficult task to offer. He knocked on Selena's door and saw the door fly open almost instantly.

"Selena, the madame and her sons are waiting for you. Hm?" Selena was holding something on her hand. A photo. By the troubled look on her face, she had been thinking about it for some time.

"I...I found this. Because you wouldn't tell me anything, I..." The words were hard to form. The guilt was enough to make Serena squirm. She handed it to Nakajima with a slight tremble and Nakajima took it, anxious at what Serena could have done while he was accompanying Reiji out for an entire day. A part of him wondered if this were some kind of joke.

"Where did you find this?" he whispered in shock.

"Even you don't know then?" whispered Selena.

If he'd said nothing, Selena wouldn't have suspected anything, but Nakajima made the wrong time to hesitate. "Well..."

"You do!" gasped Selena.

Nakajima looked between the photo and Selena. Would Reiji care if he told her? He was worried Selena might take more drastic action after this. How _did_ she find this? "And?"

Selena slightly deflated. "If you could tell me... But I know I've become too nosy. So if it's nothing too personal and...if you can keep it a secret from Reiji..."

"Absolutely not," he said flatly.

Selena glared at him.

"How did you find this? Where did you find this?"

Selena's glare twitch but she held onto her silence.

"It wasn't you that's for sure," he muttered. "In any case, I'll report this after breakfast. You're keeping them waiting – "

"Wait, Nakajima. You have to tell me. _This_ isn't something I can ask Reiji."

"_Why do you want to know so badly?"_ he wanted to say but he kept it to himself. Nakajima considered his options. So far, being direct and reasonable hadn't worked out with Selena. She was too stubborn. But she seemed to cave in when her feelings conflict one another. If she were in his debt, she might be easier to negotiate with next time. Who helped her snoop around the mansion without any of the cameras catching her?

"Four years ago, Reiji got into a car accident. They were taking a vacation around the country when the accident happened. That's all I really know. He had grievous wounds but as you could see, he made a full recovery."

"He looked so happy," she said, her normally hard expression melting to something akin to pity - sadness. "I didn't know he and the professor could make that kind of face."

Nakajima didn't either. When he was hired three years ago, Reiji was already a completely different boy. Today, three years later, he was another changed person. And this photograph told of a third story when Reiji was a happy child being carried on the shoulders of his father, the father he had made his enemy a long time ago.

"I've not been in the service of the Akaba long, but family is very important to them. Perhaps that's why none of them took Akaba Leo's abandonment well." He chuckled. "Not that anyone would like it in particular. But the Akaba have more...reasons."

Selena sent him a frown of confusion but Nakajima sent her off.


	9. Casino

When Dennis returned with two bags of refreshments, he was not expecting to find their party's table sparse of people. The only ones remaining in their place, guarding the assortment of bags and belongings their parents lovingly packed for them were Sawatari Shingo and Gongenzaka Noboru. Both of them acknowledged Dennis' return but none thought it be urgent to tell him where the others had gone to. The toilet?

"What happened?" he asked, sitting down and grabbing his can of soda.

Shingo, with a smile of exhilaration from his tea soda, replied, "The children went out to explore."

Gongenzaka looked displeased. "To do dishonorable things."

"Dishonorable things? Wait, even Shun?"

Shingo looked at Dennis disbelievingly before laughing. "'Shun?' Don't tell me you call him that in front of him."

Dennis grinned. "We're all friends and we're both Xyz-users. That makes us twice closer, right?"

Shingo laughed again to Dennis' annoyance. Was it _that_ funny? Dennis hid behind his smile and turned to Gongenzaka.

"So, where did they go?"

Gongenzaka looked at Dennis critically, getting Dennis even more curious. "Why? Do you intend to follow them?"

"_Relax, relax_. I'm only asking a question. If they were getting themselves in trouble, I might follow them to get them _out_ of it."

"They went to the casino," he said in disdain.

"Oh? Well, I doubt they'll be let in. We have fake IDs, but not even Shun will look like he's eighteen. What's the problem?"

"Hmph."

"Kurosaki actually left to sneak in and gamble," supplied Shingo. "Said the extra money wouldn't hurt."

"Ah. Well, he's not wrong on that."

"That man has no honor." Gongenzaka crossed his arms, bowing his head in deep shame for Shun. "He asked that I come."

Dennis smiled faintly. "I wonder if it will make you more honorable to starve out in the streets and be dressed in your own grime. Not all of us can choose suffering over the good conscience in our hearts like you, Gon-chan." Dennis stood up and clasped his hands together. "We Standard folks all had pretty comfortable lives back home. I say there would be a lot more times in the future when we disagree on matters so we should give way when possible."

"You may be right," said Gongenzaka. "But don't misunderstand me, Dennis. I believe Kurosaki to be a good man but he might have been alone for too long. He's no longer fighting a desperate battle. Maybe it will take some time for him to heal."

Ah, thought Dennis. He should have expected Gongenzaka to be thinking like this. Personally, Dennis thought it was simply Shun's nature, but Gongenzaka wasn't completely wrong. Shun was a wounded falcon who'd lost everything he had and haven't stopped to rest his wings for years. Did it make him stronger? Or was he digging his grave, soon to one day fall from the sky without ever finding what he wanted to see?

If Shun left, Selena and Yuya might have followed for his sake. What about Reira though? Another thought crossed Dennis.

"What about you?" he asked Shingo, who looked at him questioningly. "Aren't you interested?"

"Haha. Are you implying I'm a man of no honor? You expected that I'd jumped in and gambled?"

"Ah, no."

Shingo grinned. He leaned backward, tilting his chair on its back legs. "It's as you said. We lived pretty comfortable lives back in Standard, but that's a big understatement on my part. Unlike Kurosaki, I don't have an unhealthy compulsion for money. I've had a lot of it all my life without effort, you see. What about you, Macfield?"

"I'm from a middle-class family. Nothing interesting."

"Really?" asked Shingo. "LDS tuition isn't cheap."

"LDS hadn't always owed the Broadway School. And you also pay in talent to get in there," answered Dennis with a wink of insolence. "Anyway, I'll go have a look on how they're doing."

Dennis followed the signs and advertisements in the mall that pointed toward the casino. He eventually followed the sound of slot machines and jiggling coins when they reached his ears. Soon, he found himself standing before its entrance, six feet wide and six feet tall, pouring with molten gold light from chandeliers in high ceilings that coated every inch of the floor, walls, and machines with a shiny enamel. Dennis stared in awe. He stepped back and tilted his chin as he followed the glass walls rise to a third story floor.

His hometown was technologically more advanced, but the Synchro Dimension flaunted its technology in extravagant architecture. Lots of construction. Lots of people.

Noticing the lack of guards, Dennis warily made his way inside. There weren't many people in the first floor. When Dennis saw several teenagers casually walking around, he relaxed. Maybe this wasn't the real inside of the casino yet? Dennis looked around and it didn't take long for him to find the others.

"Yo. You guys look like you're having fun."

Yuya waved at him. "Ah, Dennis! Are Gongenzaka and Sawatari with you?"

"Nah. They're back at our table, waiting. How's gambling going?"

"Gambling? Nah. Well, not really," he said sheepishly. Yuya stepped back from the slot machine, revealing young Reira sitting in front on it from a high stool. Dennis grabbed Yuya.

"_Reiji is going to murder us_!" he hissed, sincerely terrified for his life. "It's bad enough you brought him here but you're also letting him play!"

"It's not what you think!" said Yuya, prying Dennis' fingers from his shoulders. "Look – " Yuya pulled something from his pocket and let its end drop to the ground. A long string of tickets rolled on Dennis' feet.

"Tickets? A game?" Dennis peered over Reira's. 7, 7, 7, the fourth column still rolling.

"Yeah. We're not playing for the money. Reira's really good at it."

"Oh. That explains why there was no guard at the entrance."

"Yeah. The casino is at the second floor."

Dennis smiled. "That's a relief. Gongenzaka was upset, you know. He said Shun wanted to gamble."

"Oh, he does. But Selena and I managed to stop him - with Reira's help. He wanted to play and Shun felt guilty enough to stay."

Dennis looked over beside Reira where Selena was playing the same game. Her screen had different symbols each. She didn't seem to be the lucky type. Shun was over a different machine.

"Tsukikage?"

Yuya took a moment to look around. "Not sure..."

Dennis, followed by Yuya, went over to Shun's and saw him concentrating on virtual roulette. A countdown was ticking at the top right screen, indicating a time limit for whatever Shun was after. Dennis identified it as the picture of a card at the left side of the screen, a monster called "Blackwing – Mistral The Silver Shield."

"Changing deck?" asked Dennis.

"It's a tuner monster," said Shun, taking a card from a small pile of deck at his hand. To Dennis' shock, Shun inserted the card into the machine without a care. Yuya was trying his best to keep his thoughts to himself.

"They're spoils of war," explained Shun, paying no mind to Yuya. "A rare card for a rare card."

Yuya couldn't hold it in. "Treating cards like they're commodity – " Dennis reigned him in.

"Now, now, it's just like trading, isn't it?"

Shun input his bet on the machine and turned to Yuya. "Our enemy had superior cards. Obviously, we'll take what we need and put them to good use." Shun turned back to the machine. It seemed like it was the end of conversation for Shun, but Dennis saw him hesitate. "...I don't enjoy this method either, but it's a small price to pay considering what's at stake."

Yuya sighed. It was good enough a reason for him.

"Is it that important of a card?" asked Dennis, watching the virtual roulette spin.

"Who knows."

"Eh?" exclaimed Yuya.

Shun shrugged. "It's a gut feeling."

Yuya grinned at Dennis. "That actually makes more sense. Nakajima told me that Shun was too proud to fight with Pendulum cards during the tournament. Huh?" Yuya sensed Shun's look on him. "What?"

When Shun didn't reply and turned his eyes back on the screen, Yuya realized it.

"AH! Sorry, sorry. It was a slip." Yuya glared accusingly at Dennis, who raised his eyebrows and hands questioningly. Before Yuya could spell for him his treason, the ball had stopped and they heard a card popped out of the machine. Shun pulled it out and both Dennis and Yuya saw for the first time what it looked like for Shun to be perplexed.

They huddled behind him and looked at the card.

"Huh. It's a different one," said Dennis, reading the text.

"Mm. A visual bug? It looks good though."

"Mm-mm. It's still a tuner monster."

"A special summon with 2000 DEF isn't bad either."

"Many viable tactics on this one!"

They fell silent.

"Kurosaki," began Yuya, "Are you going to use this?"

Shun inserted the card to his deck, stood up, and walked away. "If it can stand alongside my Raidraptors, it might stay."

"It isn't really a bad card," said Dennis once Shun was out of earshot. "But..."

"Yeah... Imagining Kurosaki saying it..."

Dennis coughed, turning away so he could discreetly wipe a tear on his eye.

After 30 minutes, the party headed back, content and a bit giddy from the new cards they won. Selena was the only one whose efforts bore no fruit. She didn't care; she didn't find it as fascinating as the others made it. A game of luck was nothing. Reira thought differently, however, and thoughtfully presented her "Spiritual Forest." She hesitated – she didn't need a card to protect her monsters – but Selena was a little loss for words on the gesture that she ended up not saying anything at all. Reira seemed to take silence as a good sign.

Shingo rose from his seat upon seeing them back. "Finally! Let's get going already!"

"Well? Did you get what you want?" Gongenzaka looked at Shun indifferently.

"Ah..." Having forgotten that his last words to him were to gamble and profit, Shun reached for his deck and showed him the new card he got. Gongenzaka, having not expected a card instead of a wallet full of cash, leaned close until his nose was an inch before the card and, with a deep frown, read it aloud...

"Cockadoodledoo."


End file.
